Container handling and transporting device

ABSTRACT

A device for loading heavy containers on to a semitrailer comprises a false chassis connected to the chassis of the semitrailer by two pairs of pivoted levers, and adapted to be raised and lowered by a ram-and-cylinder device. The pivoted lever arrangement provides a deformable quadrilateral such that when the false chassis is lifted from a tilted position where it receives the container, it also moves forwardly on the chassis of the semitrailer.

O United States Patent [151 3,638,817

Corompt 1 Feb. 1, 1972 [54] CONTAINER HANDLING AND 2,806,613 9/1957 Johnson ..214/1 D TRANSPORTING DEVICE 3,288,315 11/1966 Bigden ..214/506 3,195,749 7/1965 Dempster et al.... .....214/505 Invenwfl Anmme Commpl, Saint-Etienne, France 3,462,033 8/1969 Pioch ..214/505 [73] Assignee: Bennes Mai-rel, Saint-Etienne, France Primary Examiner Albert J a y 1 Flledl Aug- 7, 1 69 Attorney-Sughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn and Macpeak [211 App]. No.: 848,293 ABSTRACT A device for loading heavy containers on to a semitrailer com- I. l S 214/5 prises a false chassis connected to the chassis of the semitrailer [58] Field 0 Search 515 by two pairs of pivoted levers, and adapted to be raised and i 4/517 l b lowered by a ram-and-cylinder device. The pivoted lever arrangement provides a deformable quadrilateral such that [56] Reerences Cited when the false chassis is lifted from a tilted position where it receives the container, it also moves forwardly on the chassis UNITED STATES PATENTS of the Semitrailen 2,786,590 3/1957 Edwards et al. ..214/506 2 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTED FEB 1m 3638.811

SHEET'IUF 2 PATENTEDFEB 1192 3,638,817 SHEET 20F 2 CONTAINER HANDLING AND TRANSPORTING DEVICE The present invention relates to improvements to devices of the kind used for handling and transport of very heavy and bulky hoppers or containers on semitrailers.

It is known that containers exist of standardized weight and dimensions, which are currently used in international transport by land, sea and air. To avoid the necessity of using cranes, transporter bridges or gantries of great power on handling sites, a known technique is to construct lorries capable of carrying out by their own means the loading, transport and unloading of these containers. Such a type of lorry is described in the specification of French Pat. No. 1,540,341. Such a known lorry loads and transports the container on its own chassis, which is well suited for certain types of container.

On the other hand, for other containers which are even heavier and bulkier, the legal requirements, notably regarding the load per axle, necessitate transport on semitrailers. The kinematics envisaged by the aforementioned French Patent are difficult to transfer to the case of a semitrailer, because they leave the container much too far to the rear on the false chassis where it is loaded. On the contrary, to ensure a correct distribution of the loads on semitrailer it is necessary to load the container very much to the front, which relieves the rear single or double axle and increases the load on the driving axle of the tractor.

The present invention has the aim of providing a device for the handling and the transportation on a semitrailer of very heavy and bulky containers.

A device according to the invention is fitted to the chassis of a road semitrailer, and comprises a swinging false chassis mounted onto the vehicle chassis by means of two pairs connecting rods, of which the pivots form the corners of a deformable quadrilateral, the pivot shaft on the chassis being lower than the pivot shaft on the false chassis, while a doubleacting horizontal jack, directed horizontally when the false chassis is bearing on the chassis, is linked at the forward end to the chassis and at the rear to the false chassis, this latter in addition being provided with a winch, roller tracks, pulleys and all other known accessories to carry out the hoisting of the containers. It will be understood that by contracting the jack there are caused not only the lowering of the false chassis onto the vehicle chassis but also its movement forward in the direction of the cabin of the tractor vehicle. The loaded container is in consequence brought forward at the same time that it is placed on the chassis.

Following a method of construction preferred by the invention, advantage is taken of the particular position of the rear connecting rods to make them elbowed and to fit them with pulleys or with a large roller for running on the ground. The rear connecting rods thus at the same time play the part of support stays during the loading or unloading of a container.

An arrangement in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. I to 7 show successive stages in the loading of a container onto a semitrailer,

FIG. 8 is a side view to a larger scale of a winch suitable for use with the semitrailer shown in FIGS. 1 to 7, and

FIG. 9 is a front view of the winch shown in FIG. 8.

A device according to the invention is intended for fitting to the chassis of a road semitrailer. This chassis 1 comprises at its forward end a swan-neck 2 which is intended to bear on the coupling saddle of a road tractor. This saddle is placed above the rear wheels 3 of the tractor which includes also front wheels 4 and a cabin 5 (see FIGS. 5-7). At the rear, the chassis l of the semitrailer is mounted on a double axle carried by tired road wheels 6 and 7.

The assembly is provided to carry out loading, transportation and unloading of a very heavy and bulky hopper or container 8 of standard type. It is known that in order to load the semitrailer correctly, the container 8 must be placed well forward on the chassis l, and in particular must not project to the rear of the two axles of the wheels 6 and 7 (FIG. 7). In addition, in order not to increase the height, taking account of the limits in bulk imposed by the legal requirements, the front of the container 8 must be placed as low as possible on the swanneck 2.

The device shown in the drawings allows all these conditions to be satisfied simultaneously. For this purpose there is placed above the chassis l a swinging false chassis 9 which carries two transverse pivot shafts l0 and 11 (FIG. 1). A set of lateral connecting rods 12 links the shaft 10 to a transverse shaft 13 attached to the lower part of the chassis l in front of the forward wheels 6. In the same way a pair of lateral connecting rods 14 link the shaft 11 to a transverse shaft 15 situated at the rear end of the chassis l. The length of each connecting rod 12 is greater than the distance between the shafts 11 and 15 which forms the useful length of the connecting rods 14. In the same way, the distance 16 between the shafts l0 and 11 (FIG. 2) is greater than the distance 17 between the shafts 13 and 15. In consequence, the shafts 10, ll, 13, 15 form the comers of a deformable quadrilateral which is not a parallelogram.

It is advantageous to give each connecting rod 14 a bellcranked shape like that shown in the drawings. The elbow of the crank carries the shaft of a pulley or a large roller 18 which runs on the ground when the false chassis 9 is raised (FIGS. 1 to 5). During this phase of operations, the connecting rods 14 thus also play the part of support struts. This overrides the action of the suspension of the wheels 6 and 7 of the semitrailer during the loading or unloading of the container 8.

The mechanism is operated by a hydraulic jack 19, the front of which is pivoted by a shaft 20 to the chassis I, while its rear end is connected to the underside of the false chassis 9, near to the shaft 10 or even directly onto this shaft. The jack 19 is double-acting, When the jack is contracted (FIG. 7), it occupies a near horizontal position under the false chassis 9.

The equipment of the false chassis 9 is similar to that of the false chassis which was designated by the reference C in French Pat. No. 1,540,341. In practice, the false chassis 9 carries at the rear two lateral roller tracks 21. In addition, it is fitted at the front with a winch 22 which operates a cable 23 to which is attached a coupling beam 24. This latter is capable of being anchored to the front of the container 9 as shown in FIGS. 2 to 7. Nevertheless in contradistinction to the arrangement described in French Pat. No. 1,540,341, the winch 22 is here placed vertically on the front end of the false chassis 9 (FIG. 7). In fact, since the container 8 must be loaded well forward on the chassis l and in particular must be placed on the swan-neck 2 of the semitrailer, it is important that at this point the thickness of the false chassis 9 should be as small as possible. This thickness 34 (FIG. 6) would have to be at least equal to the thickness 35 of the winch 22 if this latter were incorporated horizontally on the false chassis 9. On the contrary, the vertical orientation of the winch 22 allows the thickness 34 of the front of the false chassis 9 above the swanneck 2 be reduced to a minimum. The details of the rollerways 21 and the coupling beam 24 are shown in detail in applicants US. Pat. No. 3,467,268 granted Sept. 16, 1969.

For this purpose it is advantageous to use a winch 22 of the type illustrated in FIG. 8 and 9. This winch comprises two double-acting hydraulic jacks 2S and 26, connected to positions disposed at to each other on the two ends of a drum 27 which operates the cable 23. Such a winch with two swinging jacks 2S and 26 takes up the least possible space by its thickness 35, and supplies a very regular driving torque which is very suitable for the smooth handling of very heavy containers 8.

The operation is as follows:

With the container 8 on the ground (FIG. 1), the jack 19 is extended, which has the effect of raising the false chassis 9 (arrow 28) while moving it backward behind the chassis I of the semitrailer. This operation continues until the pulleys 18 come to bear on the ground. Then (FIG. 2) the winch 22 rolls out the cable 23 to place the beam 24 on the ground and the beam is then hooked to the front of the container 8. By operating the winch (HO. 3), the cable 23 is pulled in, which raises the front of the container 8 while the assembly of the tractor 3, 4, 5 and the semitrailer 1, 6, 7 is drawn back (arrow 29), the pulleys 18 rolling on the ground. This movement continues (FIG. 4) when the front of the container 8 comes to bear on the roller tracks 21 of the false chassis 9. When hoisting up is finished (FIG. 5), the container 8 rests completely on the false chassis 9, which is still in the raised position, and the beam 24 is brought right against the winch 22, At this moment (FIG. 6), the jack 19 is contracted, which has the effect of lowering the false chassis 9 to the horizontal (arrow 30) and at the same time of bringing the assembly 8, 9 towards the front of the chassis l (arrow 31). The shaft 10 describes a trajectory 32 in the form of the arc of a circle, while the rear shaft 11 moves following another trajectory 33, likewise the arc of a circle, during this phase the pulleys 18 are raised above the ground. At the end of the operation (FIG. 7), the container 8 and the false chassis 9 are placed horizontally on the chassis 1, while the jack 19 remains contracted between the chassis l and the false chassis 9, The roller or the pulleys 18 of the rear connecting rods 14 are then situated in the upper part of the rear of the false chassis 9.

It will be noticed that in the loading position (FIG. 7), the container 8 is brought well forward on the semitrailer, which is favorable to a good distribution of load between the axle of the rear wheels of the tractor and the double axle of the wheels 6 and 7 of the semitrailer.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for loading and unloading containers on the flat bed of a semitrailer comprising a false chassis, means pivotally mounting said chassis on said flat bed including two pairs of connecting members, each of said members being pivotally secured at one end to said flat bed and at the other end to said false chassis with the distance between the pivots on said flat bed in the longitudinal direction of the trailer being smaller than the distance between the pivots on the false chassis, double-acting jack means secured to said semitrailer and said false chassis to move said false chassis between a substantially horizontal position on said flat bed and a tilted position, one of said pairs of connecting members being pivoted to said flat bed adjacent the rear end thereof and comprising two bellcrank arms, roller means secured to said bellcrank arms at the elbows thereof to support said arms on the ground when the false chassis is disposed in a tilted position and hoisting means for hoisting a container upwardly onto said tilted false chassis.

2. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said hoisting means is comprised of a flat hydraulically operated winch mounted at the front end of said false chassis substantially perpendicular thereto.

=l= i i 

1. An apparatus for loading and unloading containers on the flat bed of a semitrailer comprising a false chassis, means pivotally mounting said chassis on said flat bed including two pairs of connecting members, each of said members being pivotally secured at one end to said flat bed and at the other end to said false chassis with the distance between the pivots on said flat bed in the longitudinal direction of the trailer being smaller than the distance between the pivots on the false chassis, double-acting jack means secured to said semitrailer and said false chassis to move said false chassis between a substantially horizontal position on said flat bed and a Tilted position, one of said pairs of connecting members being pivoted to said flat bed adjacent the rear end thereof and comprising two bellcrank arms, roller means secured to said bellcrank arms at the elbows thereof to support said arms on the ground when the false chassis is disposed in a tilted position and hoisting means for hoisting a container upwardly onto said tilted false chassis.
 2. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said hoisting means is comprised of a flat hydraulically operated winch mounted at the front end of said false chassis substantially perpendicular thereto. 